D'Hotel de Scott's

Next we moved into Jamie & Tracy's RV in Manly, Sydney. We would park on the street outside where Jamie & Tracy's little apartment was and sneak in at night so no one knew we were sleeping in there. It felt a bit adventurious! We did sleep very cozy in the bed but I'm still wondering how Tracy and Jamie fit in those beds right till she gave birth to Ethan. In the mornings we would go up to their apartment get ready and enjoy breakfast and fun with Ethan. Ethan grew attached to Casey (of course what kid doesn't)and so we got many smiles and laughs in the morning. Casey & Jamie enjoyed some great surfing times (which Jamie ended up rescuing Casey one day before the beach was closed due to the waves. Tracy & I enjoyed some wonderful time going for walks with Ethan and having a spa day complimentary of our hubbies. Oh and one of my favorites was going on a shopping day with Tracy, who became my personal shopper. She found the most perfect shoes in the world for me! I wish we could do that all the time. We had such a blast with them and were really blessed.

He is always faithful

I thought I would share with you something that happened today that truly reminded Casey & I of God’s faithfulness. Today Casey & I were down at the beach reading our Bibles when Casey said he wanted to read a scripture to me. So he read me 1 Peter 3:8-16 were it says:
“Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous; not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing. For “He who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil and do good; Let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayers; but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” And who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, you are blessed. And do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled. But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and fear....”
Just as Casey finished reading this a young guy came up to us and asked if he could sit and listen to the word of God with us. So Casey read again this scripture and continued. We got talking with him and his name is Fred and he is a Christian. He said he felt God wanted him to encourage us and he gave us the scripture Philippians 1:6 which says:
“being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.”
He then encouraged us that he felt God wants to give us encouragement and confirmation in what He is called us to do and that He will accomplish it. God knows the perfect time to encourage when we may feel discouraged & reminds us again that He will never leave us or forsake us.

Chilling in Manly

Well over the last little while Casey & I have just been taking it easy in Manly. We have been staying in Manly but we haven’t been able to enjoy the beach as much as it is sunny but very cool. We’ve been wearing long pants and layering the sweaters and Casey has been fighting a bad cold for over a week now. We had some awesome time hanging out with Jamie & Tracy before they headed back to the UK this week for 4 months. We met up with them and their friends who were visiting from the UK and got a chance to hang out at Palm Beach and see another amazing sunset & enjoy some fish & chips. Palm Beach is well known to Aussies and those from the UK as a TV series call Home & Away is filmed there. We enjoyed brunch with Mick (with backpackers united) & Jamie talking about ideas and dreams. We also got a chance to have dinner with Aaron & Treen again which is always awesome to see them. Besides that we have gone for some relaxing walks, enjoying coffee together & reading. It’s been neat to meet different people at this hostel from all over the world Israel, Germany, Ireland, Sweden, Italy, Tahiti, England, US & Canada just to name a few. A lot of people here in Manly have been here for a while and are working so some have been here for months. Wednesday (May 23) we went to Ocean world here in Manly and watched the shark feeding but it was a lot different than we thought as they almost had to be force fed. We had fun seeing how most of the spiders, fish & snakes are poisonous here in Australia. Thursday morning (May 24) we had a crazy awakening with the fire alarm waking us up at 3:30 am. As we were going down the stairs there was what seemed like smoke and the foam from the fire extinguisher everywhere. The fire trucks came. They found that there was no fire (Thank God) and it was someone who had grabbed two extinguishers and just sprayed them all over the hostel entrance, stairs and elevator. Also Thursday night we hung out with Kristi & Stu from here in OZ and enjoyed a wonderful Thai dinner then went to look at the city from North point. As we were leaving North point we found that we been locked in as the area closed down at 10pm.....opps. After about an hour we all of a sudden saw a whole brigade of army truck drive up behind us and so they ended up letting us out. Alway a little adventure!

Meeting Jamie & Tracy

How amazing is God! We got an amazing opportunity to meet Jamie & Tracy from backpacking is it on Friday (May4). They are from the UK and have a similar heart and vision as we do. They have been connecting with Churches for about 2 years now encourage the churches on how to be backpacker friendly and share the love of Jesus with them. They also have a heart to connect Christian backpackers to these churches with opportunities to serve in these ministries as well as connecting them with others Christian backpackers on their journeys. We spent the day off and on with them and their 5 month old boy Ethan. We got to share visions & dreams together and got really excited as we know that God has a plan for us together in this ministry some how. How that looks we are excited to see how God unfolds it!